Suns Set Unwanted NBA-Low in Blowout Loss

The Phoenix Suns couldn't find the hoop in last night's blowout loss to the Houston Rockets, setting an NBA low in the process.

In their 117-98 loss to Houston, the Suns shot a horrid 5-36 from downtown, which translates to just 14%.

According to the Rockets' broadcast, that was the worst three-point shooting performance of the season with a minimum of 25 attempts.

"Ball movement. Did we screen well enough? Did we play fast enough? I think all of that goes into it," Suns coach Jordan Ott said after the game.

"Live, it felt alright, but when you keep looking down or looking up at the scoreboard, that number is not moving in the right direction, you definitely question it."

Typically solid three-point shooters in Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale and Collin Gillespie combined for just 2-18 from deep.

The Suns, statistically one of the better three-point shooting teams this season, undoubtedly missed the gravity of Devin Booker -- who missed his first game of the year due to a groin injury.

Booker could potentially re-join Phoenix soon, you can read more about that here.

"Some live ball turnovers. We didn't shoot it well. I think that kind of bled into our defense," Suns center Mark Williams said after the game (h/t Duane Rankin).

"Everybody needs to step up."

The Suns have surprised many during their 13-10 start to the season, though they've cooled down as of late, losing their last four-of-six.

Phoenix has road dates against the Minnesota Timberwolves (Monday) and Oklahoma City Thunder (Wednesday) coming on the schedule.

Phoenix's current three-point percentage (36.8%) has dropped them to ninth ahead of Saturday NBA action.

The Suns have seen a massive shift in philosophy under Ott, who has prioritizied the three-ball unlike previous coaches in Mike Budenholzer, Frank Vogel and Monty Williams.

The first-year head coach has done a strong job of pushing shots from deep while also instilling a new sense of culture and identity in Phoenix, which also was lacking in previous iterations of the team.

Analytics has been sort of a buzzword around the desert since Ott arrived.

“I think the analytics boom was shot quality and efficiency of shots, [but] they left out a lot of times (that) you can’t be in the negative in the possession game every night,” Ott said back in November.

“(You’re) basically in the hole to start the game. To the increase of offensive rebounding, to the increase of defensive pressure, some of that goes hand-in-hand with people talking about the possession game more.”